[Solved] Raspberry PI, which model ?

Help and Support Help
1

Hello all,

I’m new to this community and to raspberry Pi. A friend of mine lended me a V2 Raspberry Pi B and I’ve installed Volumio 1.5 on it. Everything works perfectly, except that the analog out is of a very poor quality (but I was aware of that).

I’m willing to buy a Raspberry now and a DAC board. I’ve choosed the PI-DAC+ as a DAC but the Pi model is more of a concern. I’m very tempted in the new model A+, but would the 256MB of memory be enough to play FLAC 24/192 files ?

Thanks a lot for the help :slight_smile:.

2

The memory isn’t a problem, I have a rev1 model b with 256Mb and volumio works great. There is a buffer for the audio, this uses by default about 1Mb (should be about 10 seconds cd audio)

The real question is whether or not you want to use a network cable and is one usb connection enough?

I’m also trying to figure out if I want the A+ or the B+ when the official screen is released.

3

Thanks a lot for the answer, that a very useful information.

I have several build in mind and to be honest I can live with WiFi only. The main concern is wheter or not I’ll need USB thumb stick playback. Thanks for pointing that issue out.

Regarding the WiFi, any recommandation on WiFi dongle that work out of the box with Volumio ?

Sorry,but what do you mean by “official screen” ? The DSI LCD ?

4

I just spotted a small mistake from my side.
The Audio buffer size is 2048kibibytes by default, thats double of what i said earlier (12 seconds CD quality audio)

htop.PNG

Broadcom made a nice WiFi adapter with usb hub
pi-supply.com/product/broadc … pberry-pi/

£9.99 doesn’t sound to much to me, but if you add this to a model A+… i don’t know some people would be better of with a B+.

–
With official screen, yes i meant the DSI touch screen that was announced together with the A+.
I also have multiple projects in my mind :smiley: on of those is a volumio for in a pub, library view with touch screen and only that. Optionaly adding spotify. And one at home for “techsupport” :wink:

5

Thanks for the help provided, that’s very apreciated.

6

I tried with an old DLink wifi dongle I had laying around and it worked greatly. I’m trully impressed at how simple the overhall setup is. Can’t wait to test Volumio with a DAC card.

7

A model B (or B+) makes the initial setup a lot easier because of its ethernet port. Otherwise it’s a bit of a faff to get wireless working as you have to connect to a TV/monitor. Also, the extra USB port(s) of the B models makes it easier to use a USB wifi dongle and a hard drive/USB stick at the same time.

The B+ can supply more power to these ports as well, so even 2.5" drives should work properly.

So… if money is no object, go for a B+ and get an I2S board for best sound quality.

8

I’m not yet completly settled on A+ or B+. I won’t use the Eth nor the USB, all my music is on stored my NAS. My only real concern is the initial wifi setup. Is it possible to edit the /etc/network/interfaces directly on the SD card and then put it back in the Pi ?

9

Then I think the model A+would be the best way to go, but it is completely up to you.

For initial setup you could use a serial connection over the gpio connection just so that you can setup wireless.

It is possible to edit /etc/network/interfaces on the SD card, but this cannot be done from windows.

10

Thank you for the help. I hadn’t thought of using the GPIO to establish a serial connection with the Pi :unamused: . I’m a Linux user too, so no problem accessing the SD card.